The study of prehistoric and historic environments. Traditionally, the most widely applied technique in Quaternary studies has been that of palynology. ‘There appears to be no limit to the potential diversity of proxy types of evidence [for palaeoenvironmentology], and Quaternary palaeoecologists are…prepared to investigate virtually any organism…accumulating in sediments as to its palaeoenvironmental value’ (Meadows (1999) PPG 23, 2).